According to analysts at investment company VanEck, over the past 12 months, debt Bitcoin-miners increased by 500% from $2,1 billion to $12,7 billion. The record growth was driven by the need to invest in new equipment and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
According to VanEck analyst Nathan Frankowitz and head of digital asset research Matthew Siegel, without continued investment, miners’ share of the global hashrate will decline.
We call this dynamic the melting ice cube problem. Historically, mining companies have relied on equity markets rather than debt to finance such high capital expenditures.
This is because miners’ revenues are difficult to predict, as they depend almost entirely on the price of Bitcoin, which is speculative. It’s important to note that equity capital is generally more expensive than borrowed capital, Frankowitz and Siegel stated.
According to industry publication The Miner Mag, the combined debt and convertible bond holdings of 15 public miners reached a record $4,6 billion in Q4 2024, then declined to $200 million in early 2025, and rose again to $1,5 billion in Q2 2025.
More and more Bitcoin miners are diversifying their revenue streams by shifting their energy resources to AI and high-performance computing hosting services. However, analysts believe this doesn’t pose a threat to the network’s hashrate.
Bitcoin mining remains an easy way to quickly monetize excess electricity in remote or developing energy markets, effectively subsidizing the development of data centers designed with AI and high-performance computing capabilities in mind.